North Korea threatens to cancel summit with Trump

Bit of surprising news while Trump and allies were busy celeberating Israel embassy move/teaching Palestinian protesters a lesson. Timing of this move does not indicate that NK's leader was trolling Trump earlier / now is trying to put extra pressure on Trump who had already announced the summit and started using it as a political talking point.

Kim Jong-un Wants US Promise Not to Invade in Exchange for Nukes
New York Magazine Apr 29, 2018

But it is still surprising that such a high profile summit could have been planned without such details being discussed beforehand?

North Korea threatens to cancel summit with Trump over military drills

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that the U.S. will continue planning for the Trump-Kim summit despite a North Korean threat to pull out. (Reuters)

by Anna Fifield May 15 at 4:15 PM

SEOUL — North Korea is casting doubt on next month’s summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump over joint Air Force drills taking place in South Korea, which it says are ruining the diplomatic mood.
North Korea always reacts angrily to the joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, considering them as a rehearsal for an invasion. But this year, with the sudden burst of diplomacy, had appeared to be different.
The South Korean and U.S. militaries had scaled back and played down the exercises, declining the news media the usual access to the drills. North Korea barely said a word about the drills during the computer simulation exercises that took place through April.
..
The threat by North Korea to cancel the summit now would seem to contradict the message that South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong brought to the White House in March, when Kim volunteered to meet with Trump. At that time, Kim’s message was that North Korea would refrain from additional nuclear or missile testing and understood “that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue.”

Update: The State Department says it had not received any information from North Korea concerning a threat to cancel the historic US-North Korea summit set for June 12. The State Department said it's still operating under the assumption that the Singapore summit is still happening.
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Update: The State Department says it had not received any information from North Korea concerning a threat to cancel the historic US-North Korea summit set for June 12. The State Department said it's still operating under the assumption that the Singapore summit is still happening.

Hopefully not but this could be negotiation tactic #6, keeping 'em wondering. I think tactic #3 was changing the meeting location at the last minute. (h/t Michael Scott/The Office)
But in any case, one thing that American voters cannot accept is that KJU is a better negotiator than our historic leader.

Update II: North Korea's decision to suspend talks with the South after abruptly cancelling an inter-Korean summit set for Wednesday has apparently rattled the US.
In what appears to be a concession to North Korea - or at least, a hypothetical one - Yonhap reported Tuesday night that the US is considering withholding its B-52 bombers from joint exercises with South Korea taking place this week.
In a return to its pre-detente rhetoric, North Korea said Tuesday that it felt threatened by the exercises, and threatened to retaliate.
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They're counting on Trump being emotionally invested in the positive press that he's pre-received for a yet-to-be-accomplished deal. It's a good call to make on their part. He's like a customer at the car dealership who's already got the keys in his pocket.

They're counting on Trump being emotionally invested in the positive press that he's pre-received for a yet-to-be-accomplished deal. It's a good call to make on their part. He's like a customer at the car dealership who's already got the keys in his pocket.

Who's the master negotiator between these two?

CBS/AP May 15, 2018, 11:07 PMNorth Korea threatens to pull out of U.S. summit if ordered to give up nuclear weapons

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's first vice foreign minister says the country has no interest in a summit with the United States if it's going to be a "one-sided" affair where it's pressured to give up its nukes. The statement by Kim Kye Gwan on Wednesday came hours after the North abruptly canceled a high-level meeting with South Korea and threatened to do the same with a planned summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump next month.
Kim Kye Gwan criticized recent comments by Mr. Trump's top security adviser John Bolton and other U.S. officials who have been talking about how the North should follow the "Libyan model" of nuclear disarmament and provide a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement."
He also criticized other U.S. comments that the North should completely abandon not only its nukes and missiles but also its biological and chemical weapons.

Kim says: "We will appropriately respond to the Trump administration if it approaches the North Korea-U.S. summit meeting with a truthful intent to improve relations."

Kim is testing Trump.
He is trying to do precisely what his father and grandfather before him managed to pull off: extract concessions, economic and political gains, while making small concessions or promises they later failed to keep.

Pyongyang's sudden indignation at this week's US-South Korea exercises, known as "Max Thunder," is a sham. The annual exercises are aimed at maintaining military coordination between the United States and its ally, to remain ready in case of a North Korean attack. After all, North Korea has attacked in the past.

Pyongyang knew Max Thunder was coming. In fact, last March, shortly after visiting Pyongyang, the South Korean national security adviser said in a statement that "[Kim] understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue. And he expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible."

Kim is trying to find out just how much Trump is willing to do to prevent the collapse of the summit.

Not long after the surprise announcement, the Pentagon appeared to suggest it will not budge. We'll see how Trump responds.

Giving in to Kim on the exercises would constitute another concession in what are already lopsided pre-summit negotiations. North Korea has always wanted the military exercises to end. That should be an item for negotiation, not a concession ahead of the talks.

Already, Trump, whose administration has lost its top nuclear and North Korean experts, has given Kim much of what he wanted. For decades North Korea wanted a top-level meeting with US officials. Trump has not only granted it in exchange for not very much but has also been praising Kim, calling him "very honorable" and "really excellent."

North Korea on Wednesday injected further uncertainty into plans for a highly anticipated summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.

In a statement carried by state news agency KCNA, North Korea's First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye Gwan said his country will reconsider the historic June 12 meeting if the U.S. insists on Pyongyang relinquishing its nuclear weapons.
The development is the latest sign of possible backtracking by Kim following the ruler's months-long international charm offensive that was widely hoped to clear tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Earlier, the rogue state canceled talks with South Korea and threatened to ditch the June 12 summit in protest over Washington and Seoul's joint military drills.
Wednesday's news "is classic North Korean playbook," said Sean King, senior vice president at consulting firm Park Strategies.
Ongoing peace efforts, which include Kim's summit with South Korean leader Moon Jae-In last month, may "be moving faster than North Korea ever expected and this is sort of their passive-aggressive excuse to get out of it," he continued.

Ahn Young-joon | AP

A man watches a TV screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station.

No Libya-style denuclearization

Recent "unbridled remarks" from Washington prior to the June 12 meeting constituted signs of "unjust" behavior, Kim Kye Gwan stated.
Specifically naming National Security Advisor John Bolton, the North Korean minister said U.S. officials are "letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment" and discussing a formula of "abandoning nuclear weapons first [and] compensating afterwards."
That amounts to "awfully sinister" moves to impose on North Korea "the destiny of Libya or Iraq, which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers," the minister said, stressing that Pyongyang rejects Libya-style denuclearization.
Libya voluntarily gave up its nuclear ambitions in 2003 in order to get out from under economic sanctions. The country's dictator Moammar Gadhafi was eventually overthrown in a Western-supported coup and killed in 2011.

Trump thought he had already won. Finally North Korea is setting him straight. It will not give up its weapons under thread only to get smashed like other countries which made such mistakes:

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan made clear that the communist regime is not interested in any nuclear talks in which it is coerced into giving up its nuclear arsenal, according to Pyongyang's state news agency KCNA.
...
Kim expressed displeasure with the U.S. bringing up previous denuclearization methods, including the one used for Libya.

The full statement singled out the 'repugnant' John Bolton:

High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton, White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization", "total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons". etc, while talking about formula of "abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards".

This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue.
...
It is absolutely absurd to dare compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya which had been at the initial stage of nuclear development.

We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him.

If the Trump administration fails to recall the lessons learned from the past when the DPRK-U.S. talks had to undergo twists and setbacks owing to the likes of Bolton and turns its ear to the advice of quasi-"patriots" who insist on Libya mode and the like, prospects of upcoming DPRK-U.S. summit and overall DPRK-U.S. relations will be crystal clear.

We have already stated our intention for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and made clear on several occasions that precondition for denuclearization is to put an end to anti-DPRK hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the United States.

Trump's Noble peace prize is drifting away ...

If Trump really wants the June 12 meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore and an agreement he will have to stop Bolton from making overarching demands. Secretary of State Pompeo will have to issue some conciliatory statements. The Pentagon, which dislikes peace talks that may diminish its position in South Korea, will have to end its provocative "strategic" maneuvers.

High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton, White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization", "total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons". etc, while talking about formula of "abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards".

Because as others have already posted, that went well. Is Kim a stupidhead, or has he a plan?

We can be next door to China, why would we give it up? China is also pulling strings in NK. We probably will be looking into a package deal involving NK, China and US.

Japan should be plenty close for perceived China threats if such a relocation would ease NK fears and allow for a nuke free Korea. I think Bolton spilled the beans and unfortunately was declaring their true intentions.

...because the US will not remove it's threatening US military presence in South Korea.

Nukes are their only source of any respect (or fear). It is their only source of power (military/ political). It is the only reason the US is even considering talking with them. No way they give that up. Even if the US did offer to leave South Korea (also not likely to happen).

Nukes are their only source of any respect (or fear). It is their only source of power (military/ political). It is the only reason the US is even considering talking with them. No way they give that up. Even if the US did offer to leave South Korea (also not likely to happen).

China doesn't play any role in this?

What is the punishment for the attempted murder of freedom on earth? 👁👁

North Korea is making its demands clear. This has very little to do with military drills and more to do with the Sunday talk shows in the US during which John Bolton, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, outlined what might be on offer if Kim Jong-un gave up his nuclear weapons.

The North Koreans have been watching and they do not like what they have heard.

The whole reason the state has spent years building up a nuclear arsenal, at such a great cost, is for survival.

So to compare denuclearisation in North Korea with Libya - as John Bolton did on Sunday - is not going to offer much comfort. The regime collapsed and its leader did not survive.

The root of the problem is one of language and interpretation.

Rival agendas
For months, the world has heard that North Korea is willing to denuclearise and many analysts in Korea raised their eyebrows.

They warned that there was a gap between what the US and North Korea would mean by that.

America wants North Korea to give up its weapons over a set period of time and only then will it be given economic rewards.

They also want the process to be quick, perhaps over a couple of years.

North Korea's definition of denuclearisation is very different. It has always talked in terms of the entire peninsula.

That means the US has to act too - perhaps cutting the number of troops based in South Korea or also getting rid of the nuclear umbrella it uses to protect the region. If the state is going to give up its weapons it will also want security guarantees.

Go Myong-Hyun from the Asan Institute thinks Donald Trump has "finally met his match" when it comes to geopolitical negotiations.

"The US appears to have been coming up with additional and more stringent demands that North Korea didn't like. What they're saying is if you keep giving demands that we don't like, we are willing to walk way."

There are, however, signs some sort of a deal can still be done.

John Delury, professor of history at Yonsei University, is optimistic. He described this as a "hiccup" but believes the situation could be diffused with the right message.

North Korea is obviously aware how much President Trump wants this summit, as Go Myong-Hyun points out.

"He's been spending a couple of weeks taking credit for the positive outcome. North Korea has realised President Trump's political capital is invested in this. Another way of putting it is he is trapped in this process. If President Trump doesn't stop making demands and not offering anything in return then he's going to lose his summit."

North Korea wants the world to know that it is coming to the negotiating table from a position of strength. It may also feel that it is making all the concessions.

It has suspended all missile tests and released the three US detainees. Kim Jong-un met President Moon and the pair signed a declaration, and they are about to dismantle a nuclear test site in front of international media.

So to hear the Trump administration claiming credit for a deal it does not like has been a step too far.

Many will say this move is straight out the Pyongyang playbook. That North Korea has a history of walking away from talks and deals. It does. It also has a lot more experience at this kind of diplomacy than the current US administration.

Update II: North Korea's decision to suspend talks with the South after abruptly cancelling an inter-Korean summit set for Wednesday has apparently rattled the US.
In what appears to be a concession to North Korea - or at least, a hypothetical one - Yonhap reported Tuesday night that the US is considering withholding its B-52 bombers from joint exercises with South Korea taking place this week.
In a return to its pre-detente rhetoric, North Korea said Tuesday that it felt threatened by the exercises, and threatened to retaliate.
* * *

The Pentagon has denied reports that it had considered pulling B-52 bombers from military drills between the US and South Korea. According to the Pentagon, the bombers were never supposed to take part in the drills, the Washington Examiner reported.

The US and South Korea recently started their springtime "Max Thunder" drills which are meant to "enhance interoperability and readiness."
"The scope of Max Thunder has not changed," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Logan said Wednesday.
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